"Today, the members of the Board of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association discussed the current situation prevailing in Formula One, and have concluded that the current governance system cannot continue," the ACEA press release begins.

"ACEA has come to the conclusion that the FIA needs a modernised and transparent governance system and processes, including the revision of its constitution, to ensure the voice of its members, worldwide motorsport competitors and motorists are properly reflected."

"The ACEA members support the activities and objectives of the Formula One Teams Association to establish stable governance, clear and transparent rules which are common to all competitors to achieve cost reductions including a proper attribution of revenues to the F1 teams, in order to deliver a sustainable attractive sport for the worldwide public," the statement reads.

While supporting the FOTA members' wish to work out an agreement with the FIA, the ACEA let it be understood that it is also willing to support other initiatives which would permit the 'rebel' Formula One teams from performing their art in other areas.

In other words, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association indicated it is ready to pull out its teams from Formula One unless a satisfactory agreement is reached between the FOTA members and FIA President Mosley.

"Unless these objectives are met, the BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Toyota along with the other teams are determined to find an alternative way to practice this sport in a manner which provides clarity, certainty of rules and administration, and a fair allocation of revenues to the competing teams," the ACEA statement concludes.

"This is a big shit sandwich. And it looks like we're all gonna have to take a bite."

That is pretty much how I feel about this situation. Every part about it is bad. I don't really see any resolve to this issue. And by the looks of it, neither does anyone involved in the sport either. In the end, the most likely result will be a break up of the series. Which is the worst possible scenario. Just look to see what a split did to the US open-wheel series CART. They split back in '96 to form IRL and ChampCar. ChampCar is long since dead, and IRL is not even close to what CART was back in the 90s. I fear that F1 is headed for a similar fate.

With championships like ALMS, WTCC, the Le Mans series, etc all able to compete for the attention of the fans almost as much as F1 does now. The draw of F1 will be lessened if the manufacturers leave and form their own series. On the other hand, if the manufacturers are forced to use the £40 mil cap the series might end up a shell of it's former self. And a sports car based series like ALMS or Le Mans might draw away teams and fans from F1, because they don't have caps on spending. Yet still have a good technical challenge on designing and building a car.

Personally I don't know what the solution is. That's why I don't run a racing series

Simple really... At this point Ferrari and FOTA have made it clear that the FIA backing up on the rule changes would not even be enough. They want to see Max gone.. period.

If that does not happen, F1 will be done in 1 year, they will run a series with no manfacturers running the same Cosworth engine which is a glorified F3..
Soon as the FOTA series is up and running, the "old" F1 will die a slow painful death

Simple really... At this point Ferrari and FOTA have made it clear that the FIA backing up on the rule changes would not even be enough. They want to see Max gone.. period.

If that does not happen, F1 will be done in 1 year, they will run a series with no manfacturers running the same Cosworth engine which is a glorified F3..
Soon as the FOTA series is up and running, the "old" F1 will die a slow painful death

Those Cosworth engines are rumored to be the old 2006 spec engine with raised rev limiter. All the new teams are going to be using it. FOTA thinks that it might be unfair to introduce them.

i think most of us anticipated this, but actually seeing it for real comes as a bit of a shock. max mosley is truly an idiot
i'm glad they stuck to their guns. once the FOTA teams set up some legitimate governance, this sport is going to be a lot better than it was and is under FIA.

i think most of us anticipated this, but actually seeing it for real comes as a bit of a shock. max mosley is truly an idiot
i'm glad they stuck to their guns. once the FOTA teams set up some legitimate governance, this sport is going to be a lot better than it was and is under FIA.